139 — Color Theme

ConstructiVision draws each kind of thing on a panel and a site in its own color: dimensions, weld connections, reveals, hardware, the grid, the wall lines. A theme is the named set of those colors. Color Theme opens the dialog where you see the colors in use, switch between themes, and save your own.

Where it is

ConstructiVision Site & Tools toolbar → Color Theme, between Tutorial and Program Options. Its tooltip is simply Color Theme. Typed command: CV-THEME.

The run below opened it on a panel drawing, the Arlington panel AAA039.

Try it on AAA039

  1. Open AAA039 from the Arlington Airport A project.

  2. Click Color Theme, or type CV-THEME.

  3. The ConstructiVision - Theme / Color Scheme Manager dialog opens. Top to bottom:

    • Theme library — the Theme: list, with Load, Set Active and Delete beside it. On AAA039 the list held classic and modern.

    • Panel colors (ACI) and Detail + site colors (ACI), side by side. One row per kind of thing, each with a Pick… button, its AutoCAD color number, and a color swatch.

    • Company logo — showing (default), with a Browse… button.

    • Save as company theme — a Name: box and a Save button.

    • OK, Cancel and Help along the bottom.

  4. Read the rows against the table below.

  5. Click Cancel to close the dialog.

Reading the result

On AAA039 the two color columns read:

Panel colors (ACI)

number

Detail + site colors (ACI)

number

Solid dim / NUM bg

7

Greenplate

3

Dimensions + text

8

Pick / brace points

1

Connections

5

Hardware / dowels

1

Reveal

9

Footing

7

Solid

7

Wall perimeter

5

Perimeter

7

Grid

2

Custom

7

Number blocks

7

The numbers are AutoCAD color numbers (ACI). In the dialog’s swatches, 1 shows red, 2 yellow, 3 green, 5 blue, 8 dark gray, 9 light gray, and 7 black.

Where you see the theme: the site commands apply it

The site commands apply the active theme each time they run, and say so on the command line:

[CV-THEME] applied theme: modern

When Attach placed the 83 Arlington panels on the site drawing AAAsite1, it printed that line, and the layers took the theme’s colors:

layer

before Attach

after Attach

_Walline (wall lines)

1

5

_XY (site grid)

40

2

_Walline_dim, _XY_dim, _Slab_dim, __Custom_dim

6

8

__Footing

6

7

AAA001|connections (a referenced panel)

151

5

AAA001|feature

41

9

AAA001|hardware

5

1

AAA001|solid

252

7

Tilt-Up printed the same line afterwards and every one of those colors held. The construction layout prints it too.

Site Options does not recolor the drawing’s own older dimension layers. On AAAsite1, after Site Options → OK, the dimension layers Site Options itself creates (connections_dim, custom_dim, footings_dim, slab_dim, xy_dim) were 8, but the drawing’s own _XY_dim, _Walline_dim, _Slab_dim and __Custom_dim stayed 6 until Attach ran its theme pass and made them 8.

What this lesson does not cover

  • Changing a color, saving your own theme, Load, Set Active, Delete, OK, and adding a company logo with Browse… These are not shown in this lesson. The dialog’s buttons are described in Customize the color theme.

  • Sharing a theme across a company. See the same how-to.

Watch the lesson

The video opens the dialog on AAA039 by typing CV-THEME, reads the theme library and both color columns, and closes it with Cancel. It does not change a color, load or save a theme, or show a site command applying it.